Welcome to the Rudloe and environs website.
Here you will find news, articles and photos of an area that straddles the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north-west Wiltshire.
Contributions in the form of articles or photos are welcome. Even those with completely contrary views to mine!
Thanks to the website builder 1&1 and Rob Brown for the original idea.
Rudloescene now, in January 2014, has a sister, academic rather than anarchic, website about Box history here: http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/
It contains thoroughly professional, well-researched articles about Box and its people.
Contact rudloescene through the 'Contact' page.
Another Covid week has gone by. It's now Sunday 19th July 2020 and the fine weather (but unseasonably windy as it has been throughout June and July) sees another local walk starting in Boxfields Road. The title picture shows toadflax (whose common name is butter and eggs) in Boxfields Road. I can't recall seeing this here in previous years but maybe my memory is playing tricks as there were also other plants in the Boxfields Road verge which I don't remember seeing here before, these were chicory, weld (dyer's rocket), alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and hedge woundwort - photos below. Plant identification for the latter two was enabled through Brian Bowring's plant identification app on his smartphone.
Talking of unseasonably windy weather, 'we' have been out over the past couple of nights trying to spot comet Neowise and, for July, tis bloody cold (that's a technical term). Any road up, we spotted
it in the north-western sky on Sunday night (I write this on Tuesday, 21st July) but not last night (can't think why). It appears like a faint, vertical, whiteish streak and, from our limited
experience, is best 'spotted' through peripheral vision (ie don't try to look directly at it but look to either side of it and your peripheral vision seems better able to pick it out). It's
nowhere near as clear as Hale-Bopp (or Comet Turner as we called it - long story) which could also be seen in the north-western sky in 1997. But don't miss it as it won't be around again for 6,300
years!
Our Malaysian friends at Wessex Water have left the north-eastern side of the Boxfields Road reservoir to nature for the moment
The fallen poplar at the site of the former escape route from Clift Quarry in Boxfields Road (see previous walk for details)
Seems to be a pow-wow going on in this Boxfields Road field - perhaps calling the bovine gods to invoke global vegetarianism
Chicory in the Boxfields Road verge - never seen here previously
Alfalfa (lucerne) in the Boxfields Road verge. Again, never seen here before - this plant was introduced from the Mediterranean in the 17th century
A rose, remnant of a domestic garden from the pitched-roofed, Boxfields Road prefab estate which was demolished in 1964
Weld (Reseda luteola) or dyer's rocket in the Boxfields Road verge - see the gallery below for better pictures
Artemesia vulgaris (mugwort) in the Boxfields Road verge. Vernacular names are Gipsy's tobacco or Muggar. It was stuffed into shoes to prevent travel weariness and children smoked the flowerets rolled up in newspaper (let's give it a go!).
Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) in the Boxfields Road verge - used for 'carding' wool in former times. In autumn, goldfinches feed on the seeds.
Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum) and white dead-nettle (Lamium album). According to Flora Britannica, 'most country children know that a small drop of nectar can be sucked from the base of each dead-nettle flower'. I doubt if they do now.
Wheat in Tim Barton's 'big field' through which runs right-of-way BOX47A. Oxeye daisies in the foreground, Wadswick on the horizon.
The wheat field again, Kingsmoor Wood and Wadswick on the horizon
Looks like the field has patches of barley in it; this is the view towards Chapel Barn Farm twixt Chapel Plaister and Wadswick
Wheat, barley, wheat, horse chestnut avenue (Hazelbury's back passage) and Chapel Plaister
Definitely wheat here with a closer view of Wadswick (Country Store etc) beyond
Another zoomed view towards Chapel Plaister and Chapel Barn Farm with barley now in the foreground
A broader view taking in Kingsmoor Wood, Wadswick and Chapel Plaister
Looking back up right-of-way BOX47A and its newly-erected fencing (July 2020). The 'new' field at left looks like it may be left to pasture.
Barley and common mallow in Tim Barton's other big field twixt Thorneypits and Hazelbury (a tenant does the farming)
The barley field (of the previous picture) from right-of-way BOX43
Right-of-way BOX43 (Quarry Wood - Hazelbury byway) with rosebay willowherb
View across the valley from BOX43 with Hill House Farm (Jamie's Farm) at centre-right and the Rec and C of E School at bottom-left
Rights-of-way BOX43 (left) and BOX55 (Wyres Lane, at right) - the latter leads to Wadswick Common
Heading down Hazelbury Hill into Box
The three gables of Cobham House in Hazelbury Hill
Following a short sojourn at the Queens (a half only), this is Saltbox Farm (close to Drewett's Mill) from the A4 above Fogleigh Lodge
Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) on Box Hill Lower Common, the Stairway to Heaven (the Quarrymans Arms) lies beyond
Verbascum on the Stairway to Heaven (right-of-way BOX34) and, at the end, Heaven (the Quarrymans) is closed with no indication of a reopening
Rye grass and meadow grass close to the junction of White Ennox Lane and Boxfields Road
Perhaps another indication of this area's (Boxfields Road) former life as a prefab estate - an apple tree with a climbing rose within
Bank by Boxfields Cottages with a variety of wild flowers including hedge bedstraw, marjoram and St John's wort
The ivy-covered 'cowshed' adjacent to the site of (Stan) Webb's shop which (self) served the Boxfields Road prefabs. Yarrow in the foreground.
This sycamore is one of six trees remaining of the original twenty-four with tree preservation orders in the Springfield Close area - details of all the trees with TPOs may be found on the 'Localities', 'Rudloe', 'Leafy Lane flora/fauna' page
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